The Latvian men’s and women’s national teams will compete in the finals of the European Championship at the end of the summer of 2026, however, the fact that the Latvian Volleyball Federation (LVF) lacks additional funding to properly prepare both teams for the start has already caused a great resonance. The Federation’s request for additional funding has fallen on deaf ears.
IN BRIEF:
- The national men’s and women’s volleyball teams of Latvia lack 700,000 euros to prepare for the final tournament of the European Championship.
- The Ministry of Education and Science does not promise additional funding for volleyball, but calls for money to be found in the already allocated funds.
- Uncertainty about funding was one of the reasons why cooperation with the head coach of the men’s national team, Rainer Vasilijeva, did not continue.
- Without a clear preparation plan and funding, it may become impossible for the Latvian national team to find opponents for test matches.
- In Estonia, when the sports team qualifies for the final tournament, the state automatically grants it a certain amount of funding.
- According to any scenario of the development of the financial situation, the Latvian volleyball team will participate in the European Championship.
LVF estimates predict that the preparation of both national teams and the start of the European Championship will cost almost 1.3 million euros, but the federation lacks almost 700,000 euros. When applying to the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM), additional funding was refused.
For Latvian volleyball teams, the path to the European Championship is complicated by a serious gap in finances
“Unfortunately, the issue is not moving forward,” LVF General Secretary Aivars Platonovs told Latvian Radio. “The Ministry has replied that there is no funding and will not be, pointing to some, in my opinion, quite illogical, unreasonable places where to find this money. Namely, the already existing funding granted by the Ministry of the Interior. There, together, we receive 600,000 per year from two programs [eiro]and directing it to the preparation of national teams for the European Championship means that there is not enough money for anything else – not for young people, not for youth events and championships, nor for national teams.”
The head of the federation explained that the annual budget of the LVF is about 2.5 million euros, and only about a quarter, or slightly more than 600,000 euros, is the funding given by the state. In addition, half of the federation’s base funding, which is 333,000 euros, must be directed to children’s and youth sports. Volleyball players continue to look to attract additional money from private sponsors, however, the industry has long complained that one of the tax reforms took away the bait, namely tax credits for donors.
“There are no extras here, there is a plan for a full-fledged preparation process and participation in the championship. I would say that the estimates are quite optimal for us – both living and food costs are within very reasonable limits,” emphasized Platonov. “The training camps are also as much as it would be optimally necessary.”
Aleksandrs Samoilovs, the head of the MIA responsible for the industry and its Sports Department, says that there is no more money. It is true that the budget has been reviewed by Saeima commissions, which means possible changes.
“All budget funds have been distributed. The implementation of the sports budget funds is currently 99%, it is the largest implementation of the M&E sectors, therefore, all the money has been distributed to the industry, sports organizations, and we simply do not have the funds. In the current situation, the only option, which the federation has also been informed about, how to get funding, is funds for unforeseen cases,” Samoilov admitted.
Uncertainty about funding was one of the reasons why cooperation with the head coach of the men’s national team, Rainer Vasiljeva, was not continued a couple of weeks ago. The Estonian specialist fulfilled the task of qualifying for the final tournament, and after the announcement of the non-continuation of cooperation, Vasiļjevs was disappointed, however, in the conversation with Latvian Radio, he maintained a diplomatic tone. He pointed out that, if test matches are not arranged in the next few weeks, the Latvian national team risks being left without them altogether. If the team does not have a head coach with a vision of how he wants to run the training camp, then it becomes even more difficult to negotiate games.
“All the national teams are starting to organize their schedules, test matches and everything else, and it’s happening quite quickly. I’m pretty sure that in the next few weeks all the federations will finalize their planning,” explained Vasiliev. “If there is no clarity about finances in Latvia, it can become an unpleasant reality that Latvia has nothing to play with before the championship. All teams are now looking for test matches for the period starting four weeks before the championship, but the last matches are usually scheduled a week before the tournament. At this time, everyone is now looking for test matches.”
Latvia’s northern neighbors, the Estonians, have volleyball at a higher level, and the financing issues are also more organized.
They have had a system since 2015 that, when a sports team qualifies for the final tournament, it is automatically given a certain amount of funding from the state. In volleyball, it is 200,000 euros, and it was the volleyball players in Estonia who achieved it.
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“When we qualified, we always had this problem – we have to prepare, a good result is required, but the federation is basically punished, because all this requires a lot of funds. It was especially difficult when you qualified for the tournament in June, but immediately after that there is a championship in September, so it was difficult to prepare the budget,” said Estonian volleyball legend and long-time lifter of the national team, now sports director Kürts Tobals. “Thanks to the fact that at that time the president of the volleyball federation was a politician, it was possible to put forward through the government that it is necessary to foresee a certain amount of funding that can be received by all team sports that qualify. So that at least some certain amount of support is clear.”
For Estonians, the estimate for the men’s national team in order to optimally prepare for the championship is around 350-400 thousand euros, but in addition, you have to count on funding for games in the European Golden League, the total costs of the national team in the summer reaching about 600,000 euros. They also once had such battles for state funding, however, now the issue has been resolved and the neighbors are already talking about the need to increase the guaranteed amount of state funding for national teams.
Putting together all the figures, the estimates of the Latvian and Estonian volleyball teams are quite similar, that is, there is no reason to talk about any excessive extras that could be done without.
However, the national volleyball team of Latvia will go to the European championships – a place there was earned in a two-year qualifying tournament, and the group draw for the final tournament has already taken place, so there is no possibility to refuse participation.
It is an open question how high-quality volleyball players will be able to prepare for tournaments in which they do not manage to play that often. It will be only the third time in the final tournament for the men since regaining independence, but the women’s team has been waiting 29 years for the opportunity to show themselves at the European Championship.
